


Apfelschuss

by zedille



Series: haven under the hill [3]
Category: Artemis Fowl - Eoin Colfer
Genre: Canonical Character Death, Denial, Gen, Grief/Mourning
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-31
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:21:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 500
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27301096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zedille/pseuds/zedille
Summary: After Root's death, Vinyáya listens to Short's debriefing and thinks,I wouldn't have missed.
Relationships: Holly Short & Raine Vinyáya, Julius Root/Raine Vinyáya
Series: haven under the hill [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1993291
Comments: 10
Kudos: 21





	Apfelschuss

**Author's Note:**

> _**Apfelschuss**_ , from the German 'apple-shot': see William Tell.
>
>> Opal took a deep theatrical breath. “On the device. There’s a sweet spot. One inch diameter. The red dot below the screen. If you hit that spot from outside the trigger area, then you overload the circuit. If you miss, even by a hair, you set off the explosive gel. It’s a sporting chance; more than you gave me, Holly Short.”  
> — _The Opal Deception, ch3 'Nearly Departed'_

Vinyáya listens to Captain Short’s debriefing in silence.

When Internal Affairs opened its investigation into Root's death, Vinyáya had immediately dismissed the possibility of Short's guilt, despite the apparent video footage and the corroborating weapon's log. She'd been _relieved_ when Short turned up alive. But now, as she listens to Short’s explanation of the full scope of Koboi’s cruelty —

Short must have missed. She gambled with Root’s life, and lost. They could have found a way out if the countdown hadn’t sped up, if they hadn’t lost those last precious seconds, but instead —

( ** _I_** _wouldn’t have missed_ , she thinks.)

Later, she forces herself to work through the facts: Koboi rigged it the whole time. There was never any sweet spot on the bomb to short-circuit the timer. Once the tunnel door shut, there was no way out. Either Root or Short was going to die, and Root would have wanted Holly to make it out. Which she did, _and_ she managed to apprehend Koboi and foil her plot and save Haven on top. Holly did the best she could, and if she was fooled by Koboi, well, she’s not the only one.

And yet.

If anyone could make that shot, Vinyáya would have. She'd been All-Academy marksmanship champion and had set a few shooting records in her time. Even before she joined the LEP, she prided herself on her keen eye and her steady hand; when she reached command rank and stopped doing field missions, she still made a point of maintaining all her weapons certifications.

But never mind all that — considering the emotional undertones, would she have been able to shoot her own lover point-blank, even hoping against hope to save his life?

* * *

Two weeks later, during her next scheduled trip to the shooting range, Vinyáya looks through her pistol’s holographic sights. There’s a red laser dot projected on the target ( _an inch square_ , she remembers); the visual indicator is more than Short would have had. She takes her stance, braces herself, and tries to make herself pull the trigger.

Her finger doesn’t move.

She’d been good at trick shots, once upon a time (when Julius was still alive, when they were young and unafraid, when her most pressing concern was nothing more than proving that she _could_ in fact shoot an apple off his head—)

Her hand is shaking.

 _Sixty seconds._ Julius would be dead by now, and her with him, and all of Haven with them.

She forces her nausea down and puts the weapon away.

* * *

Short is fully acquitted after a long and tedious hearing. Vinyáya doesn’t say much during the proceedings, as her long partiality for Root is well-known. Anything she said would no doubt be rejected for bias; better to stay silent rather than give Sool further ammunition.

Inevitably, Short cannot take Sool’s new command style. She resigns shortly after the hearing, saying she’ll do more good outside of the LEP. She may even be right.

Vinyáya doesn’t try to persuade her to stay.

**Author's Note:**

> > In Police Plaza the situation was desperate... The Council were huddled behind a wall of troops, all except Wing Commander Vinyáya, who had demanded to be given one of the electronic rifles. She hadn’t missed yet.  
> — _The Arctic Incident, ch13 'Into the Breach'_
> 
> Thanks to Z. for beta. Author's notes on Tumblr [here](https://zedille.tumblr.com/post/635997209082707968/apfelschuss-zedille-artemis-fowl-eoin-colfer).


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